University of North Carolina Athletics
#8 Carolina, #10 Hopkins Meet Saturday with Both Teams Needing Win for NCAA Tournament Prospects
March 28, 2000 | Men's Lacrosse
March 28, 2000
THE FUNDAMENTALS ABOUT THE GAME: Two major men's lacrosse programs with proud traditions meet Saturday with both teams in the unfamiliar position of badly needing a win to improve their chances for a bid to the 2000 NCAA Division I Men's Lacrosse Tournament. Eighth-ranked North Carolina (6-2) and 10th-ranked Johns Hopkins (1-3) will renew their rivalry on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Homewood Field on the Johns Hopkins campus in Baltimore. The game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start and will be televised live by Home Team Sports. The Tar Heels come into the game with a 6-2 record, starting the season with six successive wins but heading into this game off back-to-back losses to Atlantic Coast Conference rivals Duke and Maryland. Johns Hopkins, coached by 1983 North Carolina alumnus John Haus, has played an utterfly brutal schedule so far and stands at 1-3 with losses to Princeton, Syracuse and Virginia. The Blue Jays' lone victory is a 12-6 win at Hofstra.
THE CAROLINA CONNECTION: Saturday's game with Johns Hopkins will mark the fourth time this season that North Carolina has met up with a team coached by a former Tar Heel lacrosse player. Carolina met Navy, coached by Richie Meade '75, on March 4, Delaware, coached by Bob Shillinglaw, '74, on March 11, Ohio State, coached by Joe Breschi, '90, on March 18, and now Johns Hopkins, coached by John Haus, '83, on April 1.
THE SERIES WITH THE BLUE JAYS: Johns Hopkins and North Carolina will be playing for the 28th time in school history on Saturday. The Blue Jays lead the all-time series against North Carolina by a margin of 15-12. The first meeting between the two proud programs came in 1977 when the Paul Doty coached Tar Heels lost to the Blue Jays 16-9 in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals at Homewood Field. The chief assistant on that Johns Hopkins team was Willie Scroggs, who a little over a year later would be named the UNC head coach in the summer of 1978. Under Scroggs, the Tar Heels and the Blue Jays enjoyed a spirited rivalry with Carolina winning the first four meetings of Scroggs' tenure. All in all, Carolina was 7-9 against Hopkins when Scroggs coached against his alma mater. When Dave Klarmann took over the Tar Heels' head coach for the 1991 season UNC took five wins in a row over the Blue Jays, the last in 1994 at Homewood Field, 11-9 in a regular-season game. Since that time the Tar Heels have dropped five in a row to Johns Hopkins, all regular season games. The Tar Heels lost at Fetzer Field 13-9 in 1995, 15-7 in 1997 and 21-12 in 1999. Johns Hopkins won games against the Tar Heels at Homewood Field in 1996 by a 9-8 score and in 1998 by a 16-9 tally. All in all, Carolina is 5-5 against Johns Hopkins while Klarmann has been the head coach. Saturday's game will amount to a rubber match between the two teams during the Klarmann era as Dave has already announced his resignation effective at the end of this season.
HONORING THE 1970 TEAM: The University honored the 1970 UNC lacrosse team at last Saturday's game against Maryland. The 1970 squad was the first lacrosse team in Carolina history to earn a Top 10 national ranking. That squad was 9-2 overall and finished seventh in the final U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association rankings. That was also the first team in Carolina history to win a conference championship. That UNC team won the South Atlantic Conference championship. At that time, UNC competed in both the South Atlantic Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference.
TIME CHANGES: The Tar Heels' game with UMBC on April 15 has had a time change. Because of a track meet at Fetzer Field, the game will now start at 3 p.m. instead of the previously announced time of 2 p.m. Also, North Carolina's game with Hofstra on April 29 is a 12 noon start. It had previously been publicized as a 1:30 p.m. start but the time has been changed so that the game can be televised live by Sports Channel Long Island.
THE SEASON-OPENING HOMESTAND: North Carolina started the 2000 season by playing its first six games at the friendly confines of Fetzer Field. The experiment could not have been more successful. The Tar Heels won all six games against a string of opponents which included Fairfield, Butler, Navy, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Ohio State.
THE START TO THE SEASON: With their 6-0 start to the 2000 season, the Tar Heels produced their best start to a season since the 1993 team won its first nine games of the campaign before losing in the 10th game at Virginia in overtime.
THE 2000 WIN TOTAL: In the first six games of this season, the Tar Heels equaled their win total for the entirety of the 1999 campaign. The Tar Heels finished the 1999 season with a record of 6-9. A win over Johns Hopkins on Saturday would give Carolina more victories than it enjoyed the entirety of the 1999 campaign.
THE STATISTICAL LEADERS: Eight games into the 2000 season, the Tar Heels are being led in scoring by its dangerous attack trio of Chase Martin, Matt Crofton and Jeff Sonke. Martin leads the Tar Heels in both goals scored with 20 and points with 30. Crofton is the assist leader with 13 and he has added 14 goals for a total of 27 points. Sonke is third on the team with 24 points. He has 14 goals and 10 assists. Starting goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher has played 470:18 and has a save percentage of .576, making 91 saves and allowing 67 goals. He has a goals against average of 8.55 goals per game. Junior Ryan Damon has taken the overwhelming majority of UNC's faceoff so far this season. He has won 69 faceoffs in 108 attempts, a percentage of .639. Chase Martin and Ryan Damon share the lead for the Tar Heels in ground balls with 43. Kris Blindenbacher is third with 32 ground balls. There is a pitched battle going on for the Tar Heel lead in takeaways. Sophomore short stick defensive midfielder Joel Miller has taken over the team lead with 31, while sophomore close defenseman Zack Leader and junior long stick defensive midfielder Bobby Gormsen are tied for second with 30 takeaways apiece.
A LOOK AT THE NATIONAL STATISTICS: Carolina junior Ryan Damon is ranked sixth in the nation this week in faceoff percentage. The Darien, Conn. native has won 69 of 108 faceoffs in eight games and has a faceoff percentage of .639. Junior goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher ranks 19th in the nation this week in goals against average. Blindenbacher has played in eight games with 470 total minutes and 67 goals allowed. That is a goals against average of 8.55. As a team, the Tar Heels rank 19th in the nation in scoring offense. UNC has scored 87 goals in eight games for a per game average of 10.88. The Tar Heels are ranked 18th in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 72 goals in eight games for an average of 9.00. UNC ranks ninth in the nation in team faceoff percentage, having won .584 percent of the draws so far this season (108 of 185). Carolina is 10th in man advantage offense at .415 percent, scoring on 17 of 41 chances. Carolina is 18th in scoring margin at 1.88 goals per game and 12th in winning percentage at .750.
BLINDENBACHER NAMED PLAYER OF THE WEEK: North Carolina sophomore goaltender Kris Blindebacher was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Lacrosse Player of the Week on February 28, after leading the Tar Heels to their second win of the 2000 season February 26, a 13-7 decision over Butler. Blindenbacher, a native of Narberth, Pa., started in UNC's win over the Bulldogs and played 58 minutes between the pipes for the Tar Heels. In the contest, Blindenbacher recorded 14 saves and allowed only six goals, for a save percentage of .700.
A RETURN TO THE NCAA TOURNAMENT: The top priority for the 2000 UNC men's lacrosse team is a return to the 12-team NCAA Tournament bracket. Twice in the last three years UNC has failed to qualify for the tournament after receiving 17 successive bids from 1980-96. UNC failed to make the tournament field in 1997 with a 6-7 mark. In 1998, the Heels qualified with a 7-7 ledger but lost 16-14 to arch-rival Duke in the first round. The Heels were 6-9 last year. This year's senior class is determined to go out with a winning record for the first time since 1996 and a bid to the Big Dance in May.
CAROLINA PLAYS NATION'S THIRD TOUGHEST SCHEDULE: Carolina plays the third toughest schedule in the nation in the year 2000 according to the folks who publish the Face Off College Lacrosse Yearbook. All 13 of UNC's regular season opponents were ranked in the preseason Top 30 in the nation by the magazine. This group of opponents includes preseason #1 Virginia, #3 Johns Hopkins, #5 Duke, #8 Maryland, #9 Hofstra, #11 UMBC, #12 Navy, #17 Delaware, #21 Butler, #22 Pennsylvania, #23 Ohio State, #27 Fairfield and #29 Lehigh. The Tar Heels will be going head-to-head in 2000 with the teams they will be competing with for an NCAA Tournament invitation.
FOUR TAR HEELS EARN MENTION ON FACEOFF PRESEASON ALL-AMERICA TEAM: Four members of the University of North Carolina men's lacrosse team have been named to the preseason All-America Team named by Faceoff Magazine. This group of players includes junior attackman Jeff Sonke on the second team, senior defenseman Todd Maher on the third team, senior attackman Chase Martin on the honorable mention squad and junior defenseman Bobby Gormsen on the honorable mention squad.
CAROLINA STILL A YOUTHFUL TEAM: While North Carolina will rely on its seven seniors to help lead the Tar Heels to a potential NCAA Tournament bid in 2000, Carolina still stacks up as a team with a lot of younger players this season. The Tar Heel roster includes 15 freshmen and 11 sophomores out of 41 players. The senior class is led by UNC's four captains for the 2000 season, all of whom were elected by their teammates last fall to fill the captain's role. The captains are attackman Matt Crofton of Garden City, N.Y., attackman Chase Martin of Owings Mills, Md., midfielder Jordan Herrick of Birmingham, Mich., and defenseman Todd Maher of Towson, Md.
SHORING UP THE DEFENSE IN 2000: A major emphasis in this season for the Tar Heels has been playing better defense--and that includes all 10 players on the field at one time. UNC head coach Dave Klarmann has stressed riding tactics with the attackmen, toughness and the ability to snag the ground balls with the middies, playing physical defense with the close defensemen and stopping the ball at the last line of defense with the goalkeepers. Carolina was a decent offensive team in 2000 as the Heels scored 10.87 goals per game, 20th in the country. But all too often Carolina was vulnerable to the powerful attack and particularly to offenses centered around one player. Despite some heroic defensive efforts against the likes of Princeton, Duke and Loyola last season, Carolina still gave up 11.33 goals per game which ranked the Tar Heels 34th in the nation in scoring defense. Despite playing another difficult schedule in 2000, Carolina is looking to improve the latter average and reestablish the presence of an intimidating defense when visitors come to what hopefully for them will be the unfriendly confines of beautiful Fetzer Field.
KLARMANN IS AMONG THE NATION'S VERY BEST COACHES:: A 1976 graduate of Carolina, Dave Klarmann is now in his 10th year as the head coach of the Tar Heel men's lacrosse team. The Tar Heels are 98-48 during Klarmann's tutelage and they have earned seven bids to the NCAA Tournament in the previous nine years. Klarmann has the ninth best winning percentage amongst active NCAA Division I men's lacrosse head coaches with an all-time ledger of .671.
THE TAR HEELS IN THE CLASSROOM: Ten members of the University of North Carolina's men's lacrosse team began this semester with cumulative grade point averages of 3.0 or above. Senior Todd Maher has the highest GPA amongst upperclassmen with a 3.586 mark and Jack Alsup leads the freshmen with a 3.7 mean. Eight members of the 1999 UNC men's lacrosse team were named last summer to the Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Honor Roll.
THE ALL-TIME RECORD: UNC has an all-time record of 324-192-2 in 43 years of varsity competition. The Tar Heels have won eight regular-season Atlantic Coast Conference championships and seven ACC Tournament championships. The Heels have finished ranked in the Top 25 of the USILA poll 32 times and they have been invited to play in 20 NCAA Tournaments.
SERIES AGAINST THE 2000 OPPONENTS: Fairfield was the only new opponent on the Tar Heel schedule during the 2000 season. Carolina's records against its 13 regular-season opponents are as follows: Fairfield: UNC leads 1-0, Butler: UNC leads 5-1, Navy: UNC leads 8-6, Delaware: UNC leads 6-5, Pennsylvania: UNC leads 7-3, Ohio State: UNC leads 7-0, Duke: UNC leads 34-12, Maryland: Maryland leads 28-17, Johns Hopkins: Johns Hopkins leads 15-12, Virginia: Virginia leads 32-18, UMBC: UNC leads 13-4, Hofstra: Hofstra leads 2-1, Lehigh: UNC leads 2-1-1.
ON THE CAREER CHARTS: With his goal against Maryland last Saturday, senior Chase Martin moved into eighth place in career goals at Carolina with 92. Martin is now chasing Jason Wade (1993-96) who had 95 career goals and is in seventh place. With three points in Saturday's game against Maryland, Martin moved into 10th place in career points at Carolina. He now has 145 career points going into the Johns Hopkins game. Martin is now chasing Spencer Deering (1994-97) who is in ninth place with 150 career points. Meanwhile, junior Ryan Damon has moved into third place in the category of most faceoffs won in a career. Damon has now won 258 faceoffs in his UNC career. The second spot is occupied by Jason Sanders (1993-96), who won 298 career faceoffs.
CAROLINA WINS THE SEASON OPENER: North Carolina started out the 2000 season on a positive note February 20, holding off a late rally by Fairfield to triumph 12-11. After starting slowly, Carolina trailed 5-3 in the last minute of the first half but goals by freshman midfielder Kyle Bell and sophomore middie Joel Miller pulled the Tar Heels even at the half, 5-5. UNC went on to score the first four goals of the second half as Pat Jackson, Austin Garrison, Chase Martin and Matt Crofton scored to put the Tar Heels up 9-5 with 5:08 left in the third quarter. Crofton's goal was the sixth in a row for the Tar Heels and staked them to what seemed like a safe lead. But the Stags would not go away. Twice in the game's final six minutes Fairfield pulled within one goal but UNC goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher stopped a shot by Fairfield's Spencer Steele in the game's final seconds to preserve the victory. Carolina's balanced offense included nine different goal scorers. Jeff Sonke led the Tar Heels with thre goals and two assists, while Chase Martin had two goals and one assist. Blindenbacher made 12 saves for the Tar Heels.
TAR HEELS SHOW GREAT IMPROVEMENT IN SECOND GAME WIN OVER BUTLER: A more aggressive North Carolina men's lacrosse team showed up for the team's second game of the season and the Tar Heels responded February 26 with a decisive 13-7 victory over 21st-ranked Butler at Fetzer Field. After playing the Bulldogs to a 2-2 tie after one quarter, UNC outscored the Bulldogs 9-2 over the middle two quarters of the game to pull away for the relatively easy victory. The Tar Heel defense showed great resolve and sophomore goalkeeper Kris Blindenbacher came up with 14 saves in 57:45 of play. Offensively the Tar Heels got great balance with eight players contributing to the total of 13 goals. Both Chase Martin and Mac Hammer scored three times and Jeff Sonke had two goals. Sonke and Matt Crofton each added two assists. Just as they had against Fairfield six days earlier, the Tar Heels used the final minute of the first half to change the nature of the game. UNC led 6-4 but goals by Hammer with 37 seconds remaining and freshman Kyle Bell with seven seconds left staked the Tar Heels to a more comfortable 8-4 halftime advantage. UNC then came out and outscored the Bulldogs 3-0 in the third period to put the game away.
TAR HEELS EDGE NAVY IN OVERTIME: North Carolina's men's lacrosse team rallied from a 7-2 second quarter deficit to defeat 12th-ranked Navy 11-10 in overtime at Fetzer Field on March 4. Junior attackman Jeff Sonke scored the game-winning goal for the Tar Heels 1:18 into the first overtime period, assisted by Chase Martin. UNC trailed by 7-2 less than five minutes into the second quarter but seven straight goals by Carolina put the Heels up 9-7 with 9:19 to play. Navy then staged a rally of its own and forced overtime by scoring three of the last four goals of regulation. Sonke and Martin powered the Tar Heels to the victory. Sonke scored a career high five goals and added two assists. Martin equalled his career high for goals in a game with four and he also added two assists. The win avenged an 8-6 loss to the Midshipmen in Annapolis in 1999.
BIRTHDAY BOY CROFTON LIFTS HEELS PAST HENS: The Tar Heels avenged another defeat from the 1999 season as they defeated the Delaware Blue Hens 8-7 at Fetzer Field on March 11. Again, Carolina needed a comeback to stay unbeaten. The Blue Hens led 5-3 at halftime before a trio of unassisted goals by Chase Martin, Jeff Sonke and Kyle Bell in the first five minutes of the second half gave Carolina its first lead at 6-5. Defense dominated the final 25:22 of the game as only three goals were scored. Matt Crofton, celebrating his 22nd birthday, scored the game winner for the Tar Heels with 5:03 to play in the game. Crofton had three goals and one assist in the UNC victory while Martin had two goals and one assist.
LATE RUN RALLIES HEELS PAST QUAKERS: For the third straight game, the North Carolina Tar Heels avenged one of their nine defeats from 1999 as Carolina ran away from Penn in the late stages of the game for a 13-6 victory on March 14. This was a game of peaks and valleys for both teams and fortunately for the Tar Heels there were more peaks. The Tar Heels sprinted to a 5-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. But Penn would then hold Carolina scoreless for nearly 28 minutes while compiling a 5-0 run of its own to lead 6-5 late in the third quarter. But back to back unassisted goals by defenseman Todd Maher and attackman Chase Martin in the last three minutes of the third quarter gave the Tar Heels the lead for good. UNC would end up with an 8-0 scoring blitz in a span of 12:14 to ice the win. Four different Tar Heels had two goals with the scoring leader being Crofton with two goals and three assists. Kris Blindenbacher was brilliant in the goal for the Tar Heels as he made 17 saves and allowed only six goals in 60 minutes of play.
BUCKEYES FALL TO HEELS 13-8: For the first time this season Carolina led from start to finish in vanquishing the Joe Breschi,'90, coached Ohio State Buckeyes 13-8 at Fetzer Field March 18. Carolina led 6-3 at the half and then put the game out of reach by outscoring OSU 5-1 in the third period. UNC senior attackman Chase Martin equalled his career high for goals in a game by scoring four times. Matt Crofton had three assists for Carolina. UNC outshot the Buckeyes 42-28 and also won the ground ball battle 43-26.
SECOND HALF RUN BY DUKE PUSHES BLUE DEVILS PAST TAR HEELS: Carolina put its six-game winning streak on the line March 22 against Duke but the Blue Devils proved to be the hungrier of the two teams, outscoring the Tar Heels 7-1 in the second half en route to a 13-8 victory. The Tar Heels bounced back from a 6-3 deficit at the end of the first quarter to outscore the Blue Devils 4-0 in the second quarter and take a 7-6 halftime lead. Carolina still led 8-7 early in the third quarter before the Blue Devils went on a 6-0 scoring run to end the game and beat Carolina for the second straight time. Matt Crofton, Mac Hammer and Chase Martin led the Tar Heels with two goals each.
MARYLAND CONTINUES TO HAVE UNC'S NUMBER: Despite a great effort by the Tar Heels, Carolina continued to be frustrated by Maryland's recent mastery of UNC on March 25 as the Terrapins outlasted the Tar Heels 10-9 at Fetzer Field. The deciding span in the game came from 3:43 left in the third quarter until 7:38 left in the game when the Terps went on a 3-0 scoring run to take a 10-8 lead in the game. Carolina cut the deficit to one goal with 3:25 to play on a Steven Will extra-man goal but the Tar Heels could never get the equalizer. Carolina opened the game strong and led 5-3 after one quarter but Maryland outscored the Tar Heels 3-0 in the second quarter to lead 6-5 at the half. Maryland increased the lead to 7-5 early in the third quarter and Carolina responded with a three-goal run by Matt Crofton, Jeff Sonke and Crofton again to lead 8-7 with 4:39 to play in the third quarter. But the lead was short-lived and the Terps went on to beat the Tar Heels for the fifth successive time. Crofton led the Tar Heels offensively with a three-goal, one-assist effort. Sonke had two goals and one assist.
